Former Mitsubishi worker now tunes up Apple computers

Sunday

Oct 8, 2017 at 6:15 PMOct 8, 2017 at 6:40 PM

Steve Tarter Journal Star city of Peoria reporter @SteveTarter

Editor's note: After the announcement that Caterpillar Inc. was moving its headquarters, area leaders put attention on the region's other home-grown businesses. The Journal Star is looking at six businesses that are starting in the Peoria area, growing and expanding here, and committing to stay in the region. This is the fourth in a series.

PEORIA — It may be a start-up, but Gary Wolf's not just getting started in business. The owner of Experimac Peoria, 5011 W. American Prairie Drive, spent 27 years at the Mitsubishi Motor plant in Normal.

Wolf opened his franchise store in July 2016. He buys, sells, trades and repairs Apple products — everything from iPad tablets to iPhone devices.

"Everything we have is previously owned and everything we have is Apple," said Wolf, pointing to the desktops, laptops and phones on display at the business.

His store is airy and bright — just like the Apple stores across the country that sell the company's latest equipment. The closest Apple stores that offer the firm's newest products are in Chicago and St. Louis, so Wolf knows there are plenty of Apple customers in his territory. "We've had people come here from Decatur and Bloomington," he said.

With more than a billion people using Apple devices, Wolf understands the potential for trade-ins. "There's a ton of Apple product out there. We're trading all the time," he said.

Much of what Experimac sells is three to four years old, but the equipment is still sought after, said Wolf. "Used equipment has its place, especially if you're looking for value. The Mac Books are still my best sellers. Here's one for $399," he said of an Apple laptop on display.

Wolf said the store already has received a back-to-school bump as returning students picked up computer equipment. "The normal pattern is that people trade up. They replace one Apple gadget with another," he said.

Experimac performs out-of-warranty repairs on Apple computers while also upgrading Macintosh computers with higher capacity storage, adding memory and replacing logic boards, he said. "The majority of our work is repair business. We see a lot of cracked screens and failed hard drives," said Wolf.

Whether it's an iPhone or iPad that flies off the roof of a moving car or a device that remains in a user's pocket after a swim in the ocean, Experimac tries to come up with a solution for the customer, he said.

Technician Braden Griffis said water-damaged machines are common. "I'm here to tell you that rice doesn't always work," he said, referring to the common remedy of placing a water-damaged device in a bag filled with rice to dry it out.

Running a store with just three employees most of the time is a big change from Wolf's days at Mitsubishi, where more than 3,000 people worked when he started in 1988. At that time, the company was known as Diamond Star Motors.

Wolf said he recalled former Chrysler President Lee Iacocca visiting the plant along with having a front-row seat as United Auto Workers recording secretary for some of the many changes made over the years by the Japanese automaker before the Normal plant was closed in 2015.

"I have to give the UAW kudos. After workers learned of the decision to close, we didn't hide. We all had to get out on the floor and let the guys vent," he said.

Making the move to a computer store came after Wolf looked over various possibilities that included retraining at a technical school. "I just felt the job market would be saturated with everyone taking the same classes. United Franchise Group led me to the Apple repair business while I was exploring a Sign-a-rama franchise that they also had," he said.

"Experimac was a brand new franchise with them at the time and growing very rapidly. They knew that I liked working with my hands and that I liked trouble shooting problems. It just seemed like a great fit," said Wolf.

Another thing he likes about Experimac is that the firm is able to go above and beyond when it comes to customer service. "Earlier this year, during March Madness, a sportswriter from the Chicago Sun-Times was down at the Peoria Civic Center to cover the basketball tournament when his iPad went out," he said.

"We were able to swap out his machine, allowing him to report the action without missing a beat. It turned out all he needed was a cable and he was back in business. He was super happy," said Wolf.

Steve Tarter covers city and county government for the Journal Star. He can be reached at 686-3260 or starter@pjstar.com. Follow him at Twitter@SteveTarter and facebook.com/tartersource.